<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Who remembers the Flintstones?</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;"> The TV series was first aired on 30th September 1960. Fred, Wilma and Barney Rubble were big favourites of mine.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">The National Geographic Magazine has an online quiz on the Neanderthals at <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/10/neanderthals/quiz-interactive">http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/10/neanderthals/quiz-interactive</a> Try it out and see how much you know.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">Show me your results and I'll show you mine. Perhaps I knew more about Fred and Wilma than the Neanderthals.</span></p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>In 1859 the magazine Household Words was replaced by All The Year Round. The new magazine still covered social issues but concentrated on literary matters. Several important novels were serialised in the magazine including Charles Dickens&rsquo; Tale of Two Cities. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Today is the 150^th anniversary of the publication in 1860 of the first instalment of Great Expectations in the magazine. The final instalment of the novel appeared in August.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_HcW1R2xVTKA/TPO8ix6uwVI/AAAAAAAACKk/_cQfEJK50bQ/s512/Breakhisheart%20Great%20Expectations.jpg" border="0" width="327" height="512" /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Estella, Miss Havisham and Pip - Art by H M Brock</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Dickens continued to publish All The Year Round until his death in 1870.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><em><span>[An e-book of Great Expectations is available for free download from Project Gutenberg]</span></em></span></p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> <span class="mceItemObject" classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui> </span> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_HcW1R2xVTKA/TLr9tA7gB3I/AAAAAAAABuQ/Op4iVd0QwKs/s512/Town%20Hall%20Britton.jpg" border="0" width="341" height="512" /></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: ">&copy; <em>Ian Britton - <a href="http://www.freephoto.com ">www.freephoto.com </a>- Creative Commons Licence</em><br /></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Town Hall in the middle of Yarm High Street was erected in 1710 by the Lord of the Manor as a Court House in place of a ruinous Tollbooth. Later used by local magistrates for petty sessions it is now the meeting place of the parish council.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Dutch style brick building is square in plan and two stories high, with a pyramidical, red-tiled roof surmounted by a wooden clock-and-bell turret covered by a leaded cupola carrying a weather vane.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">Originally it had two open arches on each side of the ground floor and stairs leading to the room above, now used by the parish council. Two arches were bricked up in 1888 when a room was made to house the town weighing machine.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">On the south face marked stones show the heights reached by the floods of 1771 and 1881; plaques commemorate the local members of the first railway committee and the Yarm men in the Boer War.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_HcW1R2xVTKA/TMGmaedecOI/AAAAAAAABwg/SlSHE2gjVmg/s640/Town%20Hall%20003.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="480" /></p> <p style="text-align: center;">Bottom plague shows height of floods</p> <p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_HcW1R2xVTKA/TMGmd4GGvDI/AAAAAAAABwk/QHoJniZKcGM/s640/Town%20Hall%20004.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="480" /></p> <p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_HcW1R2xVTKA/TMGmhGbbyjI/AAAAAAAABws/gp7g3T5DsYw/s640/Town%20Hall%20005.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="480" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">To commemorate the anniversary pictures of historic Yarm have been added to the &lsquo;alcoves&rsquo; and end walls of the building. These pictures include Yarm Fair from earlier years, True Lovers Walk and the railway viaduct. On the north side the centre of the picture is hidden by a letter box. Yorkshire&rsquo;s white rose flag flutters from the pole at the right even although strictly the town is not in Yorkshire any more. </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_HcW1R2xVTKA/TMGmkGHdCWI/AAAAAAAABxU/6SETmNGiIZ0/s512/Town%20Hall%20006.jpg" border="0" width="384" height="512" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;">The alarum bell which once hung above the clock used to be rung to warn of fires and floods. Dated 1690 it is inscribed:</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Si Deus pro nobis ouis contra nos." (If God is for Us, who is against us?)</span></p>